Meet the Guest Editor

Joachim Vater obtained his diploma (1965) and his Doctor's degrees (Dr. rer. nat., 1972) from the Technical University Berlin working under the supervision of Professor Dr. H. T. Witt at the Max-Volmer-Institute in the field of primary processes in photosynthesis of higher plants. From 1972 - 1976 he was research assistant (postdoc) of Professor Dr. H. Kleinkauf at the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the Technical University Berlin in the field of nonribosomal biosynthesis of bioactive peptides. Since 1976 he is a research associate at this institute. He was the leader of numerous research projects on the biosynthesis and biotechnological utilization of bioactive peptides. From 1994-1998 he was the coordinator of interdisciplinary research projects on microbial cell factories in Biotechnology programmes of the European Commission. His interests include: Nonribosomal peptide biosynthesis; peptide synthetases; lipopeptides; surfactin; antibiotic and antiviral agents; combinatorial biosynthesis of peptides; peptide design; biotechnological exploitation of bioactive peptides; functional genomics of microbial secondary metabolites; metabolite screening; advanced mass spectrometric methodology for analysis of conplex biological samples (whole cells, subcellular particles, organelles, cellular extracts); protein chemistry; surface chemistry. SELECTED PUBLICATIONS Stein, T.; Vater. J.; Kruft, V.; Otto, A.; Wittmann-Liebold, B.; Franke, P.; Panico, M.; McDowell, R.; Morris, H.R. The multiple carrier model of nonribosomal peptide biosynthesis at modular multienzymatic templates. J. Biol. Chem. 1996, 271, 15428-15435. Vollenbroich, D.; Pauli, G.; Özel, M.; Vater, J. Antimycoplasma properties and application in cell culture of surfactin, a lipopeptide antibiotic from Bacillus subtilis. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 1997, 63, 44-49. Vollenbroich, D.; Ozel, M.; Vater, J.; Kamp, R.M.; Pauli, G. Mechanism of inactivation of enveloped viruses by the biosurfactant surfactin from Bacillus subtilis. Biologicals 1997, 25, 289-297. Duitman, E.H.; Hamoen, L.W.; Rembold, M.; Venema, G.; Seitz, H.; Saenger, W.; Bernhard, W.; Reinhardt, R.; Schmidt, M.; Ullrich, C.; Stein, T.; Leenders, F.; Vater, J. The mycosubtilin synthetase of Bacillus subtilis ATCC6633: A multifunctional hybrid between a peptide synthetase, an aminotransferase, and a fatty acid synthase. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 1999, 96, 13294-13299. Leenders, F.; Stein, T.H.; Kablitz, B.; Franke, P.; Vater, J. Rapid typing of Bacillus subtilis strains by their secondary metabolites using matrix-assisted laser desorption / ionization mass spectrometry of intact cells. Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 1999, 13, 943-949. Vater, J.; Kablitz, B.; Wilde, C.; Franke, P.; Mehta, N.; Cameotra, S.S. Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry of lipopeptide biosurfactants in whole cells and culture filtrates of Bacillus subtilis C-1 isolated from petroleum sludge. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 2002, 68, 6210-6219.